Digimon World
by TheGoldCard
Summary: Within the Digimon MMO, Tamers Sam and Eneris spend their days raising and competing with their Digimon. However, that soon ends when a virus infects the game, killing Digimon and erasing their data. Our heroes must find the source of the deaths, and just how far the corruption really goes.
1. Reminiscing at Dragon Eye Lake

It was a beautiful sunny morning, the voices of children and teenagers filling the streets of the city, the sounds of their feet echoing as they ran from one shop to the next, looking in awe at all the new gadgets they could acquire. The new update had just been released and a lot of the items that made most people famous for owning, and were rare or sought after had now been replaced with even better objects.

The shops were alive, adorned with promotion and sales signs, attracting more customers than the last update.

Most of the new and inexperienced Tamers rushed into them right away to spend all their bits on whatever they could get their hands on, in the hopes of becoming better, impressing their friends, or just because they wanted to do something with their money.

A lot of attention was given to the new Digivice models that had been released. D-Tectors was their name, and they seemed to have a built in scan ability, making the acquiring of data that much easier for newer players.

Far away from all of the commotion, sitting with his back to the pole of File City's welcoming sign, was Sam. Watching the younger Tamers all excited and active, made him yearn for the days when he was still so oblivious about the true way to obtain glory within this game. Like most successful MMO's, Digimon World was all about player driven economy and the willingness of everyone to cooperate and work with one another, however most players striving to shape the economy within this world got their financial start by scamming the beginners of all their money.

Sam smirked as he looked down onto his own Digivice, the legendary D-1, which was strapped around his wrist like a watch. It was a special item which he had won during an event held last year. He had to beat a couple of boss Digimon, followed by a match against another Tamer, probably a Game Moderator, he assumed looking back at it.

The Digivice looked similar to a wrist brace, with a small antenna sticking out of it. A square display had been placed in the middle of it, which gave Sam information on his Digimon, as well as his opponents, items, and enabled him to give commands to his partner without even having to say a word.

It was a helpful tool, far better than the Digivices available to buy within File City. But he wouldn't tell the new players that. They had to figure it out for themselves, just like he had to.

He pulled up one of his legs, resting his arm on his knee, while studying the display of his Digivice further. On it, a small sprite was moving from one side of the screen to the other, traveling back and forth. It looked like a small green lizard, with a red saw on his back, and every so often it would stop walking to yell at him.

It was his partner Betamon, a Deep Saver, waiting to be released from his home, in order to join Sam on an adventure. A warm smile worked its way onto the boys lips as he watched it chew away at the stack of meat laying on the right side of the screen.

It had taken him two years to hatch a Betamon. During the time that he had started playing Digimon World, a bug had sneaked its way into the game, rendering it almost impossible to raise a Deep Saver. The company behind the game was unable to fix this for almost a year due to the unidentified nature of the bug, Sam's repeated attempts of raising a Betamon failed each time.

He obtained a fresh Deep Saver egg, which in itself was a hard task, and took care of it, bathed it, kept it warm, but every time it would hatch, there would be a message, telling him the data was corrupt, that they would instead give him another egg of his choosing. But he never gave up, and he kept trying, until he eventually beat the odds and a cute little Bukamon waved at him with a smile on its face.

Before that, most of his friends told him that it was useless and he should instead focus on raising his MetalGreymon into a WarGreymon, but he had no interest in that anymore.

Not that he didn't love his MetalGreymon, which he had named Ruby, but he had always been far more excited by the Seadramon evolution line.

Feeling a little guilty, he flipped the pages of the D-1 until it displayed his very first Digimon.

Sam waved it, uncertain if it would even react to him, but to his relief, the little sprite began smiling happily.

Sam shut his eyes and took a deep breath before hitting two buttons on his Digivice, causing the antenna to emit a blue beam in front of him, which quickly turned into the shape of a full grown MetalGreymon, until it eventually was standing in front of him.

Staring directly down at him, the beast watched anxiously as Sam got up and patted the dirt off of his jeans, before walking up to it, and affectionately rub it's knee.

"How are you Ruby?" he asked in a kind and soft tone.

The Digimon let out a quiet, meaningful roar, showing it's Tamer that it was fine.

He nodded and leaned against it's leg, something he hadn't done in quite a while, much to MetalGreymon's joy.

Taking a single look at Ruby: a massive, dark scaled beast with a giant, metallic claw in place of its left arm, metal plating covering the top of its head, and tattered, purple wings, with holes burned through them, growing out of its back, you would probably run.

Which is also exactly what a couple of younger players did, when they saw it materialize in front of the city gates.

To Sam however, this was a beautiful, smart creature, not intent on hurting anyone, unless given orders to do so. It loved its Tamer, and he loved it too. He was slightly saddened by this nice moment they were sharing, both enjoying each others presence like they had done many times before, despite the fact that he had recently chosen to abandon it's training for Betamon.

He was sure Ruby was aware of this too. But it didn't matter, it simply loved being out and next to him again.

"I remember when I got you as a Koromon." Sam reminisced. "You were so loud and needy."

Ruby seemed to become embarrassed by those memories, judging by the low sounds it was making. In its Baby and Child stages, it would always cling onto Sam, asking for pets whenever possible and was even a little scared of other Digimons.

Despite it's slightly cowardly nature, it had still grown into a huge beast, ready to fight anything it's Tamers way, if this was even necessary, seeing how most enemies would already be intimidated by its razor sharp teeth, the two scar ridden horns growing out of it's head plate, or the blade like horn placed over it's nose.

If all that proved to be insufficient, it still had two Nuclear Rockets waiting to be fired from behind the two metal plates covering it's chest. It truly was a terrifying enemy to face.

Yet here it was, wanting looking for it's Tamers love and approval, almost like a big guard dog. Content with it's current situation, the Digimon got on one knee, lowering itself enough for Sam to lean his head against it's. The boy put his hand on MetalGreymon's plate and gently pet it. He wasn't even sure if the Digimon underneath could feel it, but it certainly seemed to appreciate it as it closed it's eyes and produced a sound that resembled the purring of a cat.

The duo stayed like this for a while, before Sam turned his head towards his partner.

"Do you want to evolve?" he asked suddenly.

Ruby's eyes instantly opened wide and moved to meet it's Tamers gaze. A long silence followed as both of them just stared into each others eyes, Sam sunken into deep thoughts.

He began chewing on his lip anxiously before directing his words back at his Digimon.

"I mean most Tamers eventually attempt to get an Ultimate Digimon." the Tamer reminded it. "But if you don't want to risk it, we won't."

Finally his smile returned to his face as he seemed to escape his thoughts.

"So what do you want to do?"

A few hours later, a blue flame flickered up within the middle of File City, quickly growing to a larger size, before taking on the shape of a human. Eneris had just logged into the game. As the light faded, a beautiful girl, with brown hair that reached down to her waist, a couple of purple strands mixed into it, emerged from it.

She had chocolate colored eyes, clashing with her rather pale skin. She was wearing a black hoodie, with a blue cat paw on the front of it, and gray shorts that went down to her knees.

The girl was wearing a hat in the shape of cat ears, which she had won at an auction a couple of days ago, costing her most of her remaining bits. Her Digivice, a standard D-Power, was hanging from the key-chain on the side of her shorts.

She quickly scanned the area for someone, shaking her head after she was certain he wasn't here, and then made her way out of File city, through the west exit, into the Home Forest. The second she stepped through the gate, she could see a couple of ModikBetamon fighting against younger Tamers.

One of them, who had a Hawkman as his partner, seemed to do really well, acting as a unit with his Digimon, moving with it and giving it intelligent commands beyond simply "Attack!" or "Dodge!".

She smiled and watched for a while, before moving deeper into the forest, past the first couple of clearings, taking a glance at the path to the north west, which lead into Mt. Panorama, checking to see if the person she was looking for had gone there. Unable to see him between the entrance and the fork in the road at the horizon, she shook her head once more and turned around to move towards the Dragon Eye Lake.

As she moved past the building in the center of the biggest clearing of the home forest, which happened to be a toilet for Digimon, she spotted a Tamer about the age of twelve and her Palmon racing each other from the cliff side, off to the right side of the clearing, all the way to the lake, and then running straight back. It seemed to be some sort of exercise for them, which Eneris admired.

That age and already training hard, she thought, as she continued towards the south end of the lake. She passed by a couple of wild Goburimon and pushed her way through some weeds in desperate need of being cut down, before finally reaching the small shore.

As she had expected, sitting on the edge, his feet dipped into the water was Sam. His gaze resting on the horizon, wondering what other lands would wait out there with the coming expansion to the game.

She crept up behind him, watching his curly, black hair sway in the wind. It reached down to his chin, and had one or two blue strands on it. She wasn't the biggest fan of them, but considering the fun she had with her own hair, she could hardly argue with his decision.

He wore a black hoodie similar to herself, with a zipper going diagonally from his right shoulder down to his waist. On it was the logo of the original Digimon Virtual Pets. It was an item he had won within a Tournament he had placed second in. Not because he wasn't good enough to take first, but simply because he preferred the hoodie over the Digivice the winner took home. After all, he already had his D-1.

His black jeans began to soak up the water he exposed it to, but he seemed to take no notice of that.

A splash nearby made her jerk a bit. She took a quick glance and discovered that a Betamon had been swimming next to Sam this entire time. It had to be Nappy.

"So your meeting went well I take it?" Sam said, his back still turned to her.

Eneris smiled, before taking a seat right next to him, putting her right arm around him.

"Yeah, I got the job. Should be an easy commission." she replied, while staring at the reflection of the sinking sun upon the water surface.

The two sat next to each other in silence for a little while, before Sam finally lifted his head and looked around.

"Where is Lizzie?" he wanted to know.

Eneris nodded and quickly removed her Digivice from it's chain, and with the push of a few buttons, a blinding light shot out of it, forming itself into a small blue blob.

DemiVeemon, or Lizzie as Eneris had called her, was the girls pride. Being a lot less competitive than her counterpart, she had never won that many trophies or title as Sam, but the tournament she simply had to win was the Adventure-Two Cup. It was special event that not only made it possible to hatch specific Digimon for a limited time, but also had a huge tournament at the end, with the winner receiving a ExVeemon Egg in order to raise it's own Veemon line.

She had always had a huge interest in this particular Digimon, so when the girl read the announcement, she immediately began training with the already raised Antylamon, Cloe. For weeks the two spent all her free time doing nothing but seeking out other tamers or wild Digimon in order to battle them, and sometimes simply went to the Green Gym if there was no one willing to fight.

When the day of the tournament had finally come, Eneris and Antylamon destroyed their competition, and made it to the Semi-Finale, where she was put up against her boyfriend himself. The without a doubt most interesting battle within the event, lasting for almost an hour, finally had a winner when Ruby missed Cloe with one of its missiles, causing debris to fill the air, behind which Antylamon could hide until the right moment to strike had come.

Taking first place and hearing the cheers of the crowd echo within the halls of the arena gave both Tamer and Digimon more confidence in their combined strength.

However now that she had obtained a new baby Digimon, it was time for Eneris to start all over with its training. DemiVeemon jumped into her lap, staring up at Eneris with big, expecting eyes, until the girl began petting it, which caused the Digimon to squeal with joy.

"Little guy sure does love you." Sam stated quietly, while reaching for her hand. "So do I."

Eneris smiled, resting her head on his shoulder, as both of them continued watching the water sway, and the sun disappear behind the horizon.


	2. Deletion in Factory Town

Another sunny day was given to them by the Moderators and Sam intended to use it well. The second the boy had loaded into File City, he made his way out through the west gate, into the Home Forest. Here he hit a couple of buttons on his D-1, before Betamon appeared in front of him.

"Today we are going to train you Nappy." he explained his partner. "So get ready to fight!"

The Digimon nodded and seemingly grinned. Soon enough Sam had spotted a ModikBetamon hopping along the clearing and ordered Nappy to fight it. His Digimon immediately caught on, ramming his different colored brother, pushing it over and causing it to cry out in pain.

"Good job!" Sam praised it.

Motivated, Nappy charged the saw on his back with Electricity, and fired it towards the tumbling enemy. Engulfed in a blinding light, the ModikBetamon eventually fell over and vanished, leaving EXP which quickly entered Nappy, helping him grow.

"Nice work little guy." Sam said, as he bent down to pet Nappy on the back.

The Digimon let out a small joyful roar, before picking its next target and running at it. Sam certainly was impressed by its energy and willingness to fight.

Soon enough they had beaten about a dozen of the little guys, with Betamon visibly becoming stronger each time his foes fell. After it had defeated the fifteenth enemy, it hopped on back to Sam, signaling him that it was hungry.

He nodded and went to work on his D-1 Digivice for a couple of seconds, before pointing it at Nappy and hitting the main button. A small, quick beam hit Betamon, and instantly its stomach felt full and its hunger vanished. It smiled gratefully and went back to work.

The sun was slowly sinking when Sam and Nappy made their way back to File City. Walking side by side, with Betamon occasionally having to make a big hop to catch up with its Tamer, the two already had seemed to form a bond.

Sam looked down at his D-1, showing him that within the Digiworld there were only twenty minutes left of the day. Even though he had felt and experienced every minute of it, he knew that once he logged out, it would have only been a couple of hours at most. Time just worked differently within the realms of the MMO.

He was a little sad and confused as to why Eneris hadn't showed up today, but his guess was that she decided to focus on her art today, and hoped she would be here with him tomorrow.

He looked down at Nappy, who had been studying him, worried this entire time, though upon seeing its Tamers eyes resting on it , the Betamon let out a tiny laugh.

"I hope you had a great day buddy." he said, reaching down to pet his partner's back, making sure to avoid cutting himself on the red saw. "Tomorrow we'll explore more of the forest, alright?"

The Digimon nodded, appearing to understand, before hopping past Sam towards the City. Sam followed it, watching as a few other Tamers were lying down together with their Digimons, probably intent on pulling an all nighter within the game. He smiled at the idea of doing the same, however he had to check on his girlfriend, and he was getting pretty hungry.

Once they had reached the City, Betamon turned towards Sam, looking at his with expecting eyes. The boy felt a sting in his heart, the thought of leaving the small creature deeply saddening him, before he shrugged it off and waved it goodbye.

Looking a bit confused, Nappy didn't have the chance to make any sounds before Sam zapped it with another beam from his Digivice, which enveloped the Digimon in a blinding light before sucking it into itself, storing its data safely inside.

On his own now, Sam looked up at the night sky, the stars glimmering in the distance. It was such a beautiful sight, especially compared to the view they had within the city they were living in. Only one more year and they'd be able to move out onto the Land. His excitement was almost unbearable.

He looked back down at his D-1, the sprite of Botamon moving back and forth on its display, and worked his way through the menu to the log out button.

Eneris logged in quite early the next morning and wasted no time at all with summoning her DemiVeemon. The little blue, bunny look alike ran circles around her, occasionally rubbing its head against her legs. She reached down to pet it's head, scratching it lovingly behind the ears, before making her way out of the City towards the forest. Almost no other people seemed to occupy the streets alongside her, allowing the sounds of nature to reach her before she had even made it to the gate.

As she passed it she could see an unusually large amount of Digimon running around on a clearing. She paid it no mind and continued her way to the north shore of the Dragon Eye Lake, Lizzie, her DemiVeemon right behind her. Eneris sat down at the shoreline, took off her shoes and socks, and put her feet into the water. It was one of the many things that the virtual reality allowed them to feel, and she enjoyed every moment of it. The closest beach to their house was about six hours by car, and they didn't have the time or money for such a trip at the current time.

Her eyes wandered across the surface of the water, watching schools of fish swimming from one side of the lake to the other. It was a peaceful image, the light breeze blowing through her hair only adding to it.

Lizzy had made itself comfortable in Eneris' lap, curled up like a cat, and was snoring quietly. The girl began running her hand over the Digimon's back, which seemed to please it as it wriggled against her.

Two hours later, Sam had joined Eneris and the two had decided to take a hike up Mt. Panorama, hoping to make it to the Factory Town that lay at the furthest point North-west. Initially it was a simply undertaking, with Betamon able to take care of most Digimon that would cross their path, occasionally assisted by MetalGreymon if need be. DemiVeemon on the other hand, still too small to fight, was riding on Eneris' shoulder, absorbing as much of the left over experience as possible. It took them the better half of an hour before they had made it to the end of the Mountain, at which they decided to take a small break to feed their Digimon.

Nappy had clearly grown quite a bit thanks to the experience he had gained. Lizzy also seemed to have gained some more energy; as it hopped of off its Tamer and was running circles around them. The Digimon began chasing each other for fun, while Sam and Eneris checked their inventories for supply.

"Slowly running out of Floppies," Eneris told Sam, her eyes fixed on the display of her D-Power. "We could take the shortcut through the mountain and go restock in the City."

She looked over to Sam who was checking his own Digivice, chewing on his lower lip while doing so, before he let his arm fall down, swaying it back and forth and met her glance. "I think we can make it to the Factory Town." he replied, his eyes wandering to their Digimons, "They'll do fine until we get there. I also got Ruby if we get into trouble." Sam added, pointing down at his D-1. "We can restock once we get there."

With that the boy walked over to his Betamon and pat it on the back "I can count on you, right?" he asked, gaining a big smile from it as a response. "Then it's settled."

And with that they began walking north, towards the entrance of the Gear Savannah. Eneris shook her head as she gestured for Lizzy to follow them, then did so herself.

Gear Savannah was quite different from the Mountain they had just climbed. It was a wide open area, having the ocean to the west of it, with nothing but flat grassland as far as they eye could see to the north. East of the entrance were a couple of trees, reaching high into the sky, a few more, much smaller mountains, and a hill made out of digital garbage that could be spotted from miles away. The biggest eye catcher however was the huge City, completely built out of metal that was erected at the northern edge of the Savannah an enormous steel gate dividing the two areas.

Within the Gear Savannah was quite an abundance of different Digimon Species. From Psychemons, a strange reptile that looked like a pink Dinosaur covered with a fur pelt, ShimaUnimons, a zebra like Digimon, with a metal plating, similar to Ruby on its head, to Sukamon a Digimon that literally looked like poop, or at least the way japanese animes liked to represent it.

The heat hit Sam like a hammer the second he took a step out into the open wilderness. The air was hot and dry, two things the boy absolutely hated. Eneris soon caught up to him and she too paused for a moment to adapt to the changed atmosphere. While Lizzy seemed to be doing alright, Nappy, considering that he was an amphibian Digimon that required water or at least wet environments, was sweating and panting heavily. It began tugging on Sam's pants with its beak, gesturing to put it back into his Digivice. He obliged and hit a couple of buttons before the familiar blue beam appeared and replaced Betamon with MetalGreymon.

Sam pat Ruby's knee and the Digimon responded by sinking its head for him to pet, which he quickly did. Pleased, the giant Digimon took the lead and guided them towards their goal. Most Digimon that attempted to get between them and their destination simply got swatted aside by Ruby's giant Metal Claw. One of them however, required the team's full attention. After they had just made it out of the open plains, and into a valley, trying to take a quick break within the shadows of the mountains to their sides, a loud noise caught their attention.

It was the sound of a drill being started repeatedly, before finally arriving at a stable, high pitched level. Covering their ears, the two humans tried to locate the source, to no avail. Falling to their knees as the pain got too much to bear; the two didn't see the silhouette of a Lion pouncing at them from atop the mountain. It had almost reached Eneris, its enormous needle-like claws ready to impale her, when Ruby rammed it with it's metal arm, throwing it to the ground. Its mane, which looked and functioned like a drill, got stuck in the sandy ground, instantly stopping the ear grating sound, giving the two Tamers a chance to recover.

As soon as he could, Sam pointed his D-1 at the Digimon, scanning it for its data. The Digivice soon informed him that it was LoaderLiomon, a perfect level Digimon, just like MetalGreymon. As the name would have suggested it had the shape of a slim lion, almost resembling a tiger. Its entire body had been formed out of metal, which the Digivice identified as Chrome Digizoid, the same one Ruby had been equipped with. On its end, where a normal tail would be found on an actual lion, a huge morning star was attached to it by a wire.

Liomon got up onto its paws, the three razor sharp claws digging through the dirt it was standing on. It was getting ready to pounce again.

"Ruby, take it down!" Sam commanded. His Digimon nodded and with a strong flap of its wings, Ruby dashed forward, swinging at LoaderLiomon with its metal claw. The lion was quicker however and dodged to the side with jump, bouncing off of the side of the mountain and hitting MetalGreymon on its unguarded shoulder with the maze like weapon it possessed. Eneris began summoning Antylamon in order to help, but Sam gestured her to stop. He had faith in his Digimon.

Ruby cried out in pain and whirled around, smacking the opponent against the mountain with the help of its tail. Once more LoaderLiomon hit the ground, this time requiring visibly more energy to get itself back up. These few seconds of vunerability was all Ruby needed. The MetalGreymon shot its huge claw out like a weapon, still connected to the arm through tough fiber wires, impaling the lion, keeping it on the ground. With a loud roar it then exposed its metallic chest, the two hatches screwed onto it opening, releasing a nuclear missile each. These shot out of Ruby at high speed, flying directly at its foe, before exploding on impact.

Once the dust it created had settled, the LoaderLiomon had vanished; in its place was data, floating through the air, just waiting to be absorbed by a Digimon. Despite Sam's knowledge of how much of a boost this would be for Nappy, he smiled at Ruby, which had turned its head to listen for the Tamers next command.

"Take it. You deserve it." he encouraged his Digimon, which nodded happily and moved towards the pool of data, which was slowly moving toward it, into it and then merged with its own.

Sam scanned Ruby with his Digivice and analyzed the data it spit out, with slight worry on his face. Eneris on the other hand was busy calming down her scared DemiVeemon which had hid in her bag, lacking the courage to face other violent Digimons itself. MetalGreymon returned to Sam's side, ready to strike again if it had to.

After clearing the display of his Digivice, Sam poked Eneris in the back, signing her to get up. She did so after reassuring her Digimon one last time and the two began marching again in silence, until they had reached the giant Gate locking them out of the Factory Town. Sam knocked on it, hoping for easy access, however, no response came. The gate was usually guarded by two Mekanorimon who would let Tamers pass if they had reached a certain level limit or had finished some quests that allowed them to enter. The two Tamers standing in front of it this time had achieved both of those feats, yet weren't granted entrance it seemed.

"Alright, this sucks," Eneris said breaking the silence after Sam had begun banging against the metal. "Why is nobody here?"

"Not sure," the boy replied, trying to find a whole or slit he could peek through. "But maybe the patch bugged out this area?" He then took two steps back and put his foot up against the gate, seeing if he could force it open. Of course he couldn't.

Eneris lent him a hand and the two began pushing together, but the solid metal wouldn't budge an inch. The two gave up after a couple of tries and sat down, their backs leaning against the very gate that seemed to hate them. Sweat was running down their faces as the incredibly hot son and the work they had put into their fruitless operation were taking their toll.

"I wonder what they screwed up now." Eneris eventually groaned angrily, wiping her forehead clean, before reaching into her bag and pulling out water to drink. Though not actually thirst quenching, but it did help her body cool down after the Virtual reality had been able to manipulate it into believe it had begun heating up. She handed it over to Sam who took one sip as well, enjoying the cooling effect it had throughout him, before placing it back inside of Eneris' bag.

"So what do we do now?" the girl wanted to know. Sam simply shrugged, looking off into the distance towards the trash mountain, behind which laid the Geko Swamp.

"We could move on through the forest and into Toy Town," he suggested dry as he ran his hand through his sticky hair. "But I know how much that place freaks you out."

"Yeah, no thanks." she replied, before pushing herself back up from the ground and landing Sam a hand. While being pulled up by her, which he made much harder than it had to be just to annoy her, something popped into his head and for a second he wanted to beat himself up for his stupidity.

Instead, he simply shook his head in disbelieve before pointing at the gate and commanding: "Ruby, Giga Destroyer." and for that second time that day, MetalGreymon roared out loud and fired two Missiles out of it's chest plates, causing debris to fly through the air, some of which had to be dodge by the two Tamers who weren't inclined to be impaled by metal beams. Once the dust had settled Sam could spot a hole within the gate created by the impact. He was quite impressed that the construct was able to withstand his Digimon's blast to such an extent, but the hole was still big enough for both of them to crawl through. They gave each other a high five, before Sam temporarily stored Ruby back in his Digivice in order to fit through.

Standing on the other side of the hole, the two recognized the large landing space they were standing on, which had been built for huge, flying Digimon that might require it, in case they were too big to fit through the gate like Ruby. Ruby's wings, sadly, were not strong enough to carry the giant metallic body through the air.

It was a plain area, surrounded by more metal beams that were piled up to create a wall, with some space on top for guards to patrol. The only two exits of this area were back the way they came, or an automatic bridge that had been lowered over a body of water that lead into the ocean, which the entire factory had been built over. Deciding that they weren't going to just leave again, the tag team made their way over the bridge leading to a bigger area. To the right of them they could see another bridge, leading to the front of the great Factory itself, a giant plaza where a lot of busy Digimon were usually gathered to exchange machine parts or products they were to ship to the city. However, it was completely empty today. Not a single sound came from it, or the inside of the factory.

In front of them was a small building, the administration building, the work place of Andromon, a friendly Perfect Digimon who's intelligent and knowledge surpassed that of both humans. The usual green lights that would keep it bright and friendly to look at were off and Sam was unable to spot anything within.

To their left, was a ladder that led to the sewers, where neither of them was interested of going, as well as a third bridge, which would lead them to the docks of the town. There, lots of water loving Digimon or Tamers who owned them would arrive to ask for custom made items, or trade them for material that they needed. Sam himself was hoping to one day be able to make good use of those docks by riding Seadramon to them, avoiding all the hassle of walking here.

The big theme that seemed to follow Sam's attempt of scanning the area was the emptiness of it all. Not a single Digimon seemed to be present in the usually loud and busy town. The two Tamers soon decided to check out the administration building, seeing how it was right in front of them. Together they shoved the door, which would have done it automatically on any other, to the side, and stepped in.

Sam had been right with his observation. The inside was pitch black, forcing the two to use their Digivices as flashlights as they continued moving deeper through the building. Luckily it was the smallest one within the town, so they quickly enough reached the control room, and the empty space Andromon usually occupied. Sam walked towards the consoles and hit a few buttons he assumed would activate the system, but was left with no feedback from the monitors.

"What is going on here," Eneris asked, as she walked up next to him. "Bugs usually don't erase every Digimon in an entire area like this, do they?"

"And erase all energy and power within it, yet leave the area itself standing? Not any bug I ever heard of." Sam replied, checking the controls once again.

A sudden buzzing sounded behind them, quickly gaining in volume, causing the two to flip around. In time, they jumped to the side, before the laser beam in front of them cut straight through the machines behind them. Sam quickly attempted to call out Ruby, but something long and rough struck him in the face, bashing his head against the consoles next to him. He lost his consciousness and slid to the floor.

On the other side of the room Eneris began shining her Digivice into the darkness, trying to spot the assaulter. Another buzzing started up and the girl reacted fast, rolling to the side and dodging another deadly beam which cut up more machinery, causing sparks to fly through the air, lighting up the room. This was what finally allowed her to see their foe: In the middle of the room, floating a couple of feet above the ground, was a giant, serpent shaped, orange dragon, with yellow scales adorning its underside. It had messy, purple fur covering its entire back, flowing out of the black metal plating it had on the top of its head, similar to MetalGreymon. Also much like it, this dragon possessed a pair of tattered, purple wings which, unlike Ruby's, allowed it to fly. It had two bulky black metal attachments at the end of its arms, one of which had split into three parts resembling a huge claw, revealing that the inside of the contraption was loaded with something, and it was pointed directly at Eneris. With a loud sizzling, swarms of small fish like creatures were released from it, all flying towards the girl. Getting caught up a little too long in the ridiculousness of the moment, the girl was lucky enough to be missed by the first flock, as they hit the wall behind her, causing a huge explosion on impact, which sent her flying forward, slamming to the ground exactly in front of the enemy.

Alarmed and shaken Eneris crawled away from the dragon and hurried to her feet. She couldn't put her finger on why her mind was screaming in fear right away, but as she jumped out of the way of another school of flying fish like her life depended on it, she realized it: The explosions felt real. She could feel the heat, pressure and even pain from being knocked around.

With this new found knowledge in mind, her brain told her to run away as fast as she could and get herself to safety and she was about to follow its order, until she remembered Sam. He was still somewhere in this room. She had not seen him go down, but definitely heard the loud banging sound before. Now with another fear rising up inside the girl's body, adrenaline was rushing through her at an alarming rate, her heartbeat racing like it had never done before. The fight or flight feeling within her was wrestling for a second, trying to tell her that it was just a game, he'd be fine without her. In the end however, she raised her D-Power and summoned Cloe.

Out of the Digivice came Antylamon, a Digimon with a tall, slender humanoid body, despite its extremely long arms with claws at the end of it, as well as the huge bunny ears it had. It's legs and feet were covered by light pink pants, with its torso hidden underneath red scales and what appeared to be a sailor uniform, with a scarf wrapped around its neck. Despite the somewhat silly outfit it wore, the red, stinging eyes staring directly at the rampaging dragon demanded respect and attention.

Feeling challenged by its sudden appearance, the monster in the middle of the room opened the claw like contraption on its other arm and aimed at the two. Another school of fish began racing at them, this time recognized as tiny sharks by Eneris, with huge, intimidating grins on their faces.

Cloe pushed her Tamer to the side and took a deep breath, before reeling back and slamming its fist into the group of microscopic sharks. The explosion following their impact barely scratched Antylamon. Thanks to its inner Mantra Chant it had turned its body into material as strong as the steel MetalGreymons body was made out of. With what appeared to be a smirk on its face, Cloe dashed towards its Enemy, using its still hardened body to throw another punch, landing directly in the dragons jaw. One loud, metallic cry later, the Digimon had seemingly recovered, now more enraged than before. Losing whatever temper it had possessed before, it now began randomly shooting out lasers and the tiny shark rockets, forcing Eneris to quickly find cover as the place began crumbling, with metal beams and steel pipes falling from the ceilings and out of the walls. She looked back into the room once she had reached the exit, her Digivice still acting as a spotlight for her to find Sam with, but the constant explosions and shaking of the building made it hardfor her to spot anything.

Meanwhile Antylamon had managed to create distance between itself and the blood hungry Digimon in front of it. Cloe began growling at the dragon, itself aware that something wasn't the way it was supposed to be. Antylamon began spinning its arms, causing its hands to lose their claw like shape and instead turn into axes. This transformation was referred to as Treasure Axes by the Tamers, though to Cloe it was simply a natural skill. Once more, Antylamon rushed its Enemy, swinging both axes at it in a cross formation. The dragon swung his metal hands up in the air, barely stopping Cloe's axes only inches away from its eye, the one thing left exposed underneath its metal plating. Desperately it attempted to push Antylamon away from itself, but Cloe had the upper hand, having its feet planted directly on solid ground. Unable to find another way to free itself, the dragon fired rockets out of both of its arms, which exploded on the ceiling, causing more steel and metal to crash down on them, burying both. Now it had become a race to see which of the two would get up first and gain the upper hand.

Meanwhile, Eneris had found Sam and dragged his unconscious body out of the room and into safety. She called out to him, tried to shake him awake, but no response came from the boy. At first this was all her mind could think of. Wake him, make sure he is alive. It wasn't until she listened for a pulse that she realized they were in a computer game. She quickly worked the buttons of her D-Power and made her way to the log out function. To her shock, it had been grayed out, and trying to use it only resulted in an error message and the sound of a disapproving machine resonating in her skull, "What is going on!?"

Antylamon was standing on its feet, albeit with shaking knees, trying to spot its enemy underneath the rubble. It wasn't dead. It wouldn't do such a foolish thing if it would mean the dragons demise. Once again it channeled its energy into every fiber of its body, causing it to turn into metal, before quickly digging through the beams on the floor. As it pushed a fifth one to the side, it finally spotted the orange tail stuck underneath some more rubble, before being hit in the back of its head, being smashed face first into the metal beams it had just cleared. Something else had found its way onto the battlefield.

"INTRUDERS ARE NOT TOLERATED. DELETION WILL COMMENCE."

After checking Sam's Digivice as well, confirming his log out function had been disabled as well; Eneris got up and rushed back into the room she had left her Digimon in. However, the second she made it into the room, she saw a tall figure standing above Antylamon, aiming something at its head. The next thing she remembered was a huge, blinding light burning in her eyes, before she was kicked out of the game.


End file.
